It is known to provide a golf club with a hinged shaft more particularly a practice golf club such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,035 dated Aug. 16, 1994 (inv.: Keith S. Lyford), entitled "PRACTICE GOLF CLUB". This patent describes a golf club used for practice and comprising upper and lower shaft sections connected by a one way hinge which allows pivoting of the club head in a plane which is about 45.degree. with respect to a reference plane in which the club face has a 0.degree. loft, so that during use of this practice club, the hinge will pivot mirroring the correct wrist position of the golfer during a correct golf stroke. During the back swing of a correct swing, the hinge will brake and remains so pivoted through most of the down swing, accordingly, unless a golfer's wrist are properly positioned during the back swing, the hinge will not pivot. It is obvious that this patent describes a golf club which is used for practice and not for regular golfing in as much as it only pivots provided the golfer's wrist are properly positioned during the back swing.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,237 dated Feb. 14, 1950 (inv.: W. Reineking), entitled "PRACTICE TYPE GOLF CLUB". This patent also describes a golf club used for practice with a one way hinge in the shaft, the hinge located just below the hand grip and allowing pivoting of the lower club head carrying shaft section in a plane at 0.degree. with respect to the above defined reference plane. Therefore, the golf club of this patent acts in a way contrary to the Lyford patent in as much as pivoting of the lower shaft section occurs during the back swing only when the golfer's wrists are improperly positioned. Here again, the one way hinge only allows pivoting the lower shaft section in one plane and depending on the proper position of the golfer's wrists during the back swing.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,159,579 dated May 23, 1939 (inv. :W. E. Whitney), entitled "GOLF CLUB OR THE LIKE", also relates to a golf club used for improving the effectiveness of the golfer's swing. This patent is similar to the last named patent with the addition of a spring as shown at 15 to bias the lower shaft section to a stop position in alignment with the upper shaft section. Here again, the hinge is a one way hinge.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,728,008, dated Mar. 17th, 1998 (inv. H. S. Howard), entitled "Ball striking device with means for imparting enhanced forward momentum to the ball" describes a golf club shaft made of two sections connected adjacent the club head by an elastomeric joint having a high modulus of resilience to store a maximum of energy which is released during the downswing to increase the ball velocity. Certainly, the joint does not flex under the weight of the club head when the shaft is horizontal.